Final report - How do we get electricity networks for the future?

The electrification of everything from Swedish industry to our transport sector is proceeding at a rapid pace and is a prerequisite for combating climate change. While the debate is raging about how we should produce more and more electricity, the electricity networks that will deliver it are silent. This is a major problem. The challenge of getting sufficient electricity networks in place on time is monumental and the costs that will ultimately be passed on to electricity network customers will be staggering. The situation is not helped by a starting point of lack of grid capacity in the national grid in a majority of Sweden's regions. If we do not take the expansion of the electricity grid seriously, there is a great risk that there will be no electricity in the grid and that Sweden will fail to meet its climate targets, regardless of how much wind or nuclear power we build. The Environment and Public Health Institute (EPHI) has gathered some of the brightest minds who in a number of short reports describe the challenges of the electricity grid of the future. In the first five reports, we focused on mapping the conditions, describing the current state of the grid and the challenges that need to be solved and why. In this, the sixth and final report in the series, we tie up the loose ends: based on the perspectives that have emerged in the previous reports, we point out what the way forward must look like if the Swedish electricity network is to meet the expectations we place on it, in the short and long term. And that path is reforms - for rapid and broad investments. Christofer Fjellner is a former programme manager for environment at the Environment and Public Health Institute. HOW TO GET ELECTRICITY NETWORKS FOR THE FUTURE - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Electrification depends on grids - and grids on investment - Christofer Fjellner (pdf)